Here, not far off the glorious sounding “Hanging Copse”, the river had spilled off into the field, creating a wide and deep channel that was far too big to splash my way through. If there’s one time of the year you can expect the Thames to burst its banks and spread its way through a field, it’s winter, a fact that means only a muppet would plan a walking holiday along the Thames at that time of the year. It wasn’t far beyond the Ferryman that I encountered something I’d been expecting all day: a flooded path.
They were obviously a tad confused, for a ferry hasn’t operated since the 1950s and there haven’t been any regular services from the pub since a fact perhaps rued by the cyclist who had turned up on the opposite bank and who shouted across to find out if there was a bridge anywhere, and who would be needing to cycle a bit further if he wanted to get any refreshment. The sign for the Ferryman at the roadside advertised a “ferry across the Thames” next to which someone had rubbed a large question mark in dust. These days though, it’s better known for two caravan parks and the Ferryman public house. The bus stop sat on a corner of the main road, on a junction with a narrow lane leading off to Bablock Hythe, where people crossed the Thames in Roman times, and where a ferry had operated from the 13th century. For a bus stop on a quiet rural lane, it was rather a pleasant place. Someone had placed an old garden bench in the bus shelter, and even the old black and white signpost that pointed motorists towards Northmoor and Stanton Harcourt, had floral décor, with a ring of daffs growing around the base.
Then I came to a road and a bus stop that was surrounded by daffodils poking their heads out of the spring soil.
PINK HILL PARK SHELTER 3 SERIES
But what did the afternoon hold?īeyond Pinkhill Lock the Thames Path headed inland away from the river and down farm lanes and through a series of fields lined with several piles of cut-down tree branches and trunks, which gave the impression that someone had been preparing for a truly epic bonfire party. Earlier in the day I’d left Oxford and had a pleasant stroll.
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